Scottish Water has turned to extremely high-pressure robotics in an obvious UK-first to take away many years of commercial deposits blocking a strategic sewer in South Lanarkshire.
Practically a kilometre of Rutherglen’s Eastfield trunk sewer had grow to be clogged with concrete-like calcite and suspected hazardous supplies operating below former industrial land.
All efforts to soundly take away them utilizing typical strategies similar to jetting, and diamond-tipped milling heads had proved unsuccessful.
However then Scottish Water Venture Supervisor Marc McKinnie began talking to individuals within the publicly owned utility’s provide chain, together with supply accomplice George Leslie Ltd.
He mentioned: “As a venture staff we quickly understood that typical strategies wouldn’t work right here and that we wanted to be ingenious.
“We began to ask round and one among our suppliers instructed us a couple of new robotic cutter in the marketplace in Germany able to working at 40,000 pounds-per-square-inch with excellent precision.
“That is the primary of its variety for use within the UK and one among solely three worldwide, and it has made all of the distinction.
“In just three months we have been able to clean the entire kilometre of sewer – something we had been struggling to achieve for several year using conventional methods.”
The robotic works by directing slender, extremely high-pressure jets of water onto the onerous deposits, successfully ‘cutting’ them into smaller items.
The approach is protected for the surroundings and ensures probably hazardous supplies from historic industrial websites might be flushed out and safely disposed of.
Robert Emans, Operations Supervisor at Enviro-Clear (Scotland) Ltd mentioned: “We’re excited to have been in a position to assist Scottish Water find an revolutionary strategy to the issue and efficiently demonstrating the potential of the Extremely Excessive-Strain Robotic Cutter.
“It truly is a sport changer for us, permitting better versatility in tackling cussed blockages in sewers from 10cm to a metre huge, coupled with fixed CCTV monitoring permitting our staff to make sure precision slicing.
“It additionally considerably reduces time on-site, cuts prices and lowers our carbon footprint offering a greener answer.
“Enviro-Clean continues to invest in cutting edge technology, to provide the safest solutions possible, keeping us at the forefront of the waste water industry.”
Marc McKinnie added: ““It was starting to seem like the one choice could be to dig up and exchange the sewer – which might have been disruptive and intensely costly – so it was thrilling to be part of pioneering new applied sciences to deal with difficult tasks.
“Thanks to the inspiration and enthusiasm of our delivery partners, we have achieved a great result. This shows how working together we can deliver great value for our customers and benefits to the environment, helping Scottish Water achieve its aim of delivering net zero emissions by 2040 and beyond.”
A video of the cutter in motion might be considered here.
